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In just six seconds and using only three fingers, Odell Beckham Jr did what Australian fans of the NFL have been trying to do for years.
OBJ – the New York Giants ultra-talented rookie receiver – caught a touchdown for the ages against the Cowboys in primetime on Sunday night.
With the Giants up 7-3 at the start of the second quarter, Eli Manning faked the hand-off to Andre Williams, rolled to his right and then stepped up into the pocket to hurl a bomb downfield.
Beckham, who was matched up in single-coverage with Cowboys cornerback Brandon Carr, raced down the sideline, somehow managing to stay in bounds, shook off pass interference from Carr and then threw out his right hand.
The ball stuck in three fingers of Beckham’s gloved mitt as he contorted his body in mid-air, corralling the ball against his stomach and rolling into the end zone.
The lasting image from the play is the freeze frame at the point of the catch, Beckham at full stretch, his hand somehow sticking with the football as it hurtles towards the turf. Put simply, the catch was sick and Beckham looked superhuman.
Former wide receiver and experienced ESPN sportscaster Cris Collinsworth was quick to label it one of the best catches he had ever seen. Others, like LeBron James and Giants teammate Victor Cruz, rushed to their Twitter accounts to wholeheartedly concur.
In one play Beckham had gone from promising rookie to NFL superstar.
That one fluent movement on the global stage means Beckham will claim the Rookie of the Year award, despite missing the first four games of the season.
In a deep rookie receiving class that includes Sammy Watkins (4th overall), Mike Evans (7th), Brandin Cooks (20th), Kelvin Benjamin (28th), Jordan Matthews (42nd), Jarvis Landry (63rd), John Brown (91st) and Martavius Bryant (118th), Beckham has the most potential to be one of the greats.
The catch embodied the message I have been trying to get across to NFL naysayers since I became a fan about a decade ago – American Football is home to the best athletes in the world. The game might appear slow and tedious at times, but give it a chance and you will see there is the potential for incredible plays at any moment.
The skill players – the receivers, running backs, cornerbacks, kick returners – are freaks. They boast incredible speed, acceleration and agility and can make incredible leaping catches while falling out of bounds or in tight coverage.
Beckham’s catch provided an unavoidable reminder that the NFL remains the pinnacle in terms of athleticism. The game was on in primetime and against one of the league’s most popular teams, ensuring tens of millions of people saw it live.
And because of the buzz created online, the catch was replayed thousands of times on mainstream TV around the world. The catch was shown on Fox Sports and free-to-air TV news in Australia, each time the question posed: “is this the greatest catch ever seen?”
For some it may have been the first NFL action they had seen in years. Perhaps since vision from 2011 showing Cincinnati Bengals receiver Jerome Simpson perfectly front-flipping over a Cardinals defender and into the end zone.
That highlight gained similar traction in mainstream sports outside of America and, like Beckham’s catch, provided irrefutable evidence that the NFL was still king in terms of athleticism.
There will always be those in Australia who argue the NFL is soft or that the games are slow and boring. But viral highlights like Beckham’s catch go along way to wearing down that negative resolve.
For those of us who are already NFL fans, the catch ignited debate about where it ranked against the best of all time.
If engaging in this argument, it is important to think about the circumstances surrounding a catch. There should be two lists; best catch, period, and best catch by context. Let’s take a look at a few from the past decade.
David Tyree’s helmet catch in Super Bowl XLII was a good snag. It would have claimed the top spot on SportsCentre’s top 10 list had it occurred in a regular season game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. But the fact it happened on the biggest stage, with two minutes to go and the Giants on third-and-5 and driving to win the game, makes it a great catch.
If Tyree makes the catch, but Eli Manning throws a pick on the next play the catch is not remembered so fondly or held in such high esteem.
The Santonio Holmes touchdown catch to win Super Bowl XLIII belongs on both lists. The catch itself is unbelievable: three defenders covering him in the back of the end zone, his arms extended high above his head to make the grab, the toe-tap to get both feet in bounds, the ability to hold onto the ball while falling to the ground despite taking a shot in the back.
The margin for error was minuscule, the concentration to come up in the clutch in the biggest game of his life was incredible. Holmes drops that and the Steelers may not have added their sixth Super Bowl.
Meanwhile, Beckham’s catch deserved more. At the very least it should have come in a Giants’ win. At the most it could have decided a Super Bowl or NFC Championship game. It belonged where Tyree’s did. It was something special that seemed out of place in a Sunday night, regular-season game between a 3-7 Giants team and the contending Cowboys.
It wasn’t a huge moment in a big game, but the catch itself, cut and paste into any game from any era, would be the most athletic ever seen.
The positive to take away is that Beckham is a rookie, with plenty more snaps and incredible plays to come. Give him some context to play in and Beckham could produce something even better.
After all, he’s shown he only needs six seconds and three fingers to grab the attention of the world.
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